KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



223 



No. 6. Snails. — If black snails are seized by 

 the horns, and tossed over the left shoulder, the 

 process will ensure good luck to the person who 

 performs it. In Scotland this is a very common 

 superstition ! 



No. 7. The Rook. — These useful but most per- 

 secuted birds, are said by country folk to leave the 

 house until after the funeral, if the rookery be 

 near the house. They are also said to follow the 

 fortunes of owners who have left their dwelling 

 places, and abandon the rookeries if the house is 

 left untenanted, or about to be pulled down ! 



No. 8. Pigeons. — Many good wives, out of 

 ignorance, destroy the feathers of these birds 

 instead of saving them to stuff beds, &c. They 

 say if they were to do so, it would prolong the 

 sufferings of the death bed! and when they are 

 more than usually severe, it is attributed to this 

 cause — " because the bird has no gall ! " 



No. 9. Redbreast, Swallow, and Wren. — 

 It is a belief amongst boys, and even some 

 grown-up people in country places, that to dis- 

 turb the nests of these birds is unlucky ; and 

 the housewife considers the eggs of these birds 

 in her house as affecting the safety of her 

 crockeryware ! 



(7o be continued.) 



PUBLIC ANNOYANCES. 



STREET MUSIC. 



We are glad to observe that we are 

 not alone in our strictures on the organ-ic 

 and other nuisances which infest our public 

 streets. Our contemporary, the Examiner, 

 takes up what we have so often dwelt upon ; 

 and whilst pointing out the evil, shows the 

 injustice of allowing the evil to remain. 



Is there no independent Member, asks our con- 

 temporary, that will join forces with Colonel Sib- 

 thorpe for the suppression of one of the most intol- 

 erable nuisances to which the inhabitants of the 

 metropolis are subjected without mercy, without 

 hope of deliverance, or chance of redress ? Where 

 is the liberty of the subject, where the boasted 

 inviolability of the Englishman's castle, if a man 

 cannot reckon for an hour together upon the quiet 

 and undistui'bed possession of his own premises, 

 — aye, of his own ears and brains and nerves ? 



A greater pest to society can hardly be ima- 

 gined than the London organ-grinders, — an army of 

 lawless fellows, who are let loose day by day upon 

 the streets of this metropolis, and whose persecu- 

 tion has assumed the form of a regular — we intend 

 no pun — organisation. By some understanding 

 between their unseen employers, the great street- 

 organ proprietors, whose slaves the grinders are, 

 the town appears to be divided into street-organ 

 beats, as distinct as are those assigned to different 

 sections of the Metropolitan Police by the Com- 

 missioners. 



The public have not even the relief of variety, 

 the chance of a change for the better. Week 

 after week, on certain stated days, and at certain 

 stated hours, the same instrument repeats its de- 

 testable noises — to the gratification, it may be, of 

 some idle individual, gifted with ears callous to 



every dissonance, who encourages the performance 

 by a periodical contribution — but to the annoyance 

 and torment of a whole street. Here, a studious 

 individual is driven half frantic in the vain effort 

 to collect and compose his thoughts, while his 

 ears are assailed by the incessant din of some 

 discordant apparatus for the production of noise ; 

 there, the nerves of an unhappy sufferer on a 

 sick-bed are kept in a state of distressing irritation 

 by the intolerable grating of unmusical sounds, 

 yclept street-music. 



In vain is the tormentor remonstrated with. 

 He coolly maintains his position, probably 

 answering the request for his removal with a grin 

 at the windows of the house from which the 

 message proceeded. If he apprehends that active 

 steps are likely to be taken to procure the inter- 

 ference of the police, he moves, perhaps, a few 

 yards further down the street, and there begins 

 his infernal concert afresh. In nine cases out of 

 ten, however, no such interference is possible. 

 No policeman is to be found far or near ; or when, 

 at length, the attendance of that official is secured 

 by dint of great trouble, the organ-grinder has 

 had the satisfaction, in the mean time, of finishing 

 his round of tunes, and has taken his departure. 

 Even if, through some rare instance of perse- 

 verance, the delinquent is actually taken into 

 custody, and brought before a Magistrate, the 

 chances are that he escapes through some loophole 

 or other, as was the case recently at one of the 

 metropolitan police-offices, when a fellow who 

 had for weeks, in spite of reiterated remonstrances, 

 been the torment of an invalid, escaped scot- 

 free, on the ground that the formality of warn- 

 ing him off had not been repeated on tho 

 occasion on which he was finally committed to 

 the hands of the police ! 



There is something ludicrously absurd as well 

 as monstrously unjust in the present state of 

 the law on this subject, which enables a num- 

 ber of idle vagabonds, most of them foreigners 

 imported for the purpose, to invade the comfort 

 of quiet, respectable people in their own houses, 

 without their having a chance of protecting 

 themselves from so insufferable a nuisance. 

 Surely an Administration composed of " all 

 the talents" should be able to devise a remedy 

 for an evil which, laughable as it sounds, is to 

 many of the inhabitants of London a source of 

 sei'ious interruption and of grievous discomfort. 



These remarks are very just. We verily 

 believe that the removal of the organ-grinders 

 would save many hundreds of persons from 

 going mad. Cab-drivers, who with all their 

 faults are comparatively harmless nuisances, 

 have been subjected to the most rigid disci- 

 pline, — almost to the depriving them of the 

 opportunity for eating and drinking ; whilst 

 these foreign monkeys are allowed to do just 

 as they like, and to fill our asylums with 

 idiots and raving madmen. 



THE BEAUTY OF VIRTUE. 



A diamond, 

 Though set in horn, is still a diamond, 

 And sparkles as in purest gold. 



